Blacked Out: Pocahontas Saves Smith
By Faith Roncoroni, with comments by Andrea Espinoza, Caitlin Prozonic, and Courtney Brown
[1] The discrepancy between John Smith’s 1608 letter and his 1624 public account has caused historians to question the traditional story of Pocahontas: did she really save Smith? In 1608 Smith admits that he expected execution but was treated only with kindness, while his 1624 publication claims that his life was not only threatened, but the tribal leader’s daughter, Pocahontas, saved him. According to the oral history of the Mattaponi tribe (Custalow and Daniels, The True Story of Pocahontas), Pocahontas never saved Smith for the simple reason that Smith’s life was never in danger. Smith claims his life was endangered during the four-day Powhatan werowance induction ceremony, but the Mattaponi question why the Powhatans would want to kill someone whom they viewed as “an allied chief of the English tribe, under and part of the Powhatan nation†(20). Even if Smith’s life were in danger, Pocahontas could not possibly have saved him because she was merely a child at the time, and children, despite gender or social position in the tribe, were not permitted to attend religious rituals involving quiakros, priests (19).
[2] Although historical evidence strongly suggests that Pocahontas did not save Smith, Terrence Malick’s film New World adheres to the traditional love story that society envisions between the beautiful, powerful, seductive Pocahontas who saves the handsome, adventurous Smith. During the rescue scene, Malick builds up tension through camera angles, lighting, music, and disjointed frames, which culminate in an unexpected, abrupt “blackout.†Four other times throughout the film Malick uses “blackoutsâ€: Smith sees Pocahontas for the first time (13:05); Pocahontas saves Smith (25:40); Smith and Pocahontas share an affectionate moment at the beach (36:25); Smith decides that a colonist will tell Pocahontas that Smith has died (1:27:00). The complete blackness in these other scenes acts as more than a mere transition by emphasizing the sharp contrast of the events surrounding the blackout; the “blackout†during the rescue scene accentuates Pocahontas’s ability to impact events as a mediator who transforms dark, unsettling, threatening situations into peaceful interactions.
Change in Mood -- Pocahontas as a Mediator
[3] The natives hostilely force Smith into Powhatan’s home, which is consumed in darkness and shadows, mirroring the uncertain, ominous mood of the setting. (see comment by Caitlin Prozonic) As the scene unfolds and the camera pans over the darkened facial expressions of the natives, the natives’ stoic, quizzical nature takes on an almost demonic appearance. The anxiety, tension, and “darkened†mood created by the low lighting and natives’ reactions builds up to a startling brightness followed by absolute blackness; moments before the natives attack Smith, with the intent of killing him, the entrance to Powhatan’s home opens, and Smith is helplessly pinned to the ground by a dozen warriors. As the native warriors rush Smith, yelling with their arms raised, the camera angle shifts to Smith’s perspective of the events: the camera angle pulls the audience into the film by portraying the natives as hovering and closing in during this violent, pivotal moment. By positioning the camera in a lowered position tilting upward, Malick forces the audience to associate and sympathize with Smith, who is physically lowered by being pushed to the ground and figuratively lowered by being attacked by barbarous, animalized natives who trapped him in darkness, in hell. The sound abruptly cuts out and the scene goes black, pausing in this darkness for several seconds. When the film returns from its symbolic, stylistic pause, the camera looks down on a close-up of Smith, whose facial expression reveals a heightened anxiety, uneasiness, and fear. Although he initially appears terrified, after a closer examination, his face is relaxed and his mouth is open in awe; the music accentuates this sense of calmness with a soft, harmony reminiscent of religious hymns. The soothing voices get louder as the camera angles upward, once again literally taking the viewpoint of Smith, who sees a shaft of heavenly light, shining down towards him, breaking up the darkness of Powhatan’s home.
[4] The literal perspective of Smith allows the audience to see and feel the anxiety, stress, and desperation of his situation; but there is a drastic shift in tone after the blackout, after Pocahontas takes an active role. Before her intervention, the events are confusing, chaotic, discomforting, and violent, but right as Smith is about to die she intervenes, easing Smith’s fear and anxiety while calming and pacifying her father. Pocahontas is responsible for the shift in mood, implying that she holds power in both societies and has the ability to greatly impact members within these cultures, i.e. Smith and Powhatan. She is powerful in both a physical and emotional sense: she immediately saves Smith through her actions, but her thoughts and words sway her father into calling off the attack. Pocahontas is the only character who can both sympathize with Smith and influence her father so easily, making her the only person capable of mediating the situation and stopping the violence in this scene; ultimately, the “blackout†accentuates the discrepancy between the chaos before Pocahontas’s intervention and the peacefulness she creates afterwards, accentuating her power and effectiveness as a mediator.
Light vs. Dark
[5] When Smith is forced into Powhatan’s home, there is a drastic, immediate decrease in lighting that casts shadows on the natives, making them appear ominous. Although most of the natives are partially hidden in darkness, Powhatan and Smith fall under streaks of light. Not only does the change in lighting emphasize the importance of these characters, but the lighting allows the audience to clearly see the interaction between them. Smith is portrayed as uncomfortable, fearful, and vulnerable, while Powhatan is depicted as calm, powerful, and impervious. The discrepancy in their power relations creates a sense of discomfort that is accentuated when Smith begins to talk, because he does not confidently look Powhatan in the eye when he responds. His eyes are glossed over, he looks down towards his feet and even lowers his head, slightly humbling himself. When he does look up, making eye contact with Powhatan, he reveals his fear by trembling slightly.
[6] While Smith stands before Powhatan, a native walking on beams above him briefly blocks the sunlight, momentarily covering Smith in darkness; symbolically, Smith is mentally plunged into darkness because he does not know what is expected of him or what will happen to him as denoted by his lowered left eyebrow, facial twitching, and fast talking. The brief shadowing of Smith also foreshadows the inevitability and inability of Smith to avoid a life-threatening situation. The obscurity created by the darkness makes Smith uneasy and threatened, as displayed through his body language. He feels the need to prove his worth, prove how he can be of service and benefit to the natives, ultimately to prove why he should not be killed. Smith leaves his illuminated place, takes out gun powder, walks over to the fire, and throws a handful of powder in the flames -- which erupt in a startlingly loud noise and cloud of smoke. In doing so, Smith not only enters into a darkened setting but frightens the natives. He also displaces the power dynamics by forcing Powhatan and his guards to physically leave their elevated, “spot-lighted,†throne-like sitting position that is the focal point of their interaction. The natives move closer to Smith and lean in towards him, intently pressuring Smith by watching his every move, showing the shift in attention from Powhatan to Smith.
[7] When Smith moves into the darkness to demonstrate gun powder’s reaction to fire, he not only sends a message that the colonists would be useful to the natives but also that the colonists would be a threat to the natives because they have access to this unknown, almost magical power. The natives gasp in fear, shriek back from the smoke, and some even try to shield themselves, but their curiosity about Smith and his power captivates them, and they do not take their eyes off of him. The warriors standing guard outside Powhatan’s home hear the unsettling noise and the natives' verbalized fear and distress, causing them to send in more armed warriors for protection against Smith, who is seen as “dark,†unknown, and threatening. All of a sudden the scene gets exceedingly brighter as the natives rush to attack Smith; it becomes clear to Smith and the audience that the natives are going to kill him. The progression of this discomfort, aggression, and violence culminates in an unexpected absolute darkness, correlating to Smith’s heightened anxiety as well as the audiences’ confusion and distress after being plunged in obscurity, “darkness.†The pinnacle moment of darkness sharply contrasts the lighting in the next scene. (comment by Andrea Espinoza) (comment by Courtney Brown)
[8] Symbolically, the light coming from above coupled with the music mirrors a stereotypical Christian notion of God, heaven, and salvation. As the camera pans out to the third-person point of view, it becomes apparent that the light shines down upon Smith only moments before Pocahontas desperately throws herself on his chest. While the camera is positioned looking upward, in Smith’s perspective, his voiceover correlates Pocahontas to this heavenly depiction of salvation, of light. Pocahontas’s involvement has figuratively “lightened†Smith’s situation and Malick depicts this through physical use of light. When Pocahontas intervenes, the whole scene is removed from its initial state of darkness; she removes Smith from threat by throwing herself on him. Sunlight falls on both of them as she comes within inches of his face, turns to look up at his attackers with a worried look, and immediately turns back to face him, empathetically yet passionately staring into his eyes. Once she sees that the warriors desist their attack and step back, she takes a moment to stare into Smith’s eyes before she hastily gets up and walks over to her father, whom she does not ask but tells to “spare his life.†Although Pocahontas does not have the physical or hierarchical power to force her father’s hand, she is historically depicted as his favorite child and uses his favoritism to save Smith. It is apparent that she feels strongly about saving his life because she endangers her own life, uses hand gestures, and verbally tries to convince her father against taking Smith’s life; all the while, she lightens the scene everywhere she moves. (comment by Andrea Espinoza)
[9] The “blackout†serves as an emphasis between the “dark,†uncertain, threatening position that both the natives and Smith find themselves placed in. Pocahontas, the powerful mediator, appears after the culminating plunge into absolute blackness, replacing obscurity and fear with peacefulness and tranquility.
Comments
While I understand that Smith's use of gunpowder over the fire to fascinate the Powhatans is reminiscent of the words "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," I did not feel that Smith's actions were a foreshadowing of events to come. I felt that he was pulling at straws to save his life. He knows that he is going to be killed. He discerns that from the way he is manhandled and shoved around by his captors. What fascinated me was the way that he used wits to save himself and not brawn. I felt that was important, because if he had tried to run and use guns to escape, he would have been instantly killed, and not even Pocahontas could have saved him. Using the gunpowder was actually smart, because if he had used a musket, his brains would have been fertilizing a rock.
I do agree that Pocahontas is the source of light that alleviates the rapidly encroaching darkness in Smith's vision. To me, the light seemed to follow her everywhere that she went. I noticed that wherever she went in the space, she was the center of the light pool, even though the light was coming from above. I think that this light really shows her power over the people. Yes, she is endangering her life by saving someone who could potentially destroy their entire way of life. But she does not care, and after she does what she is supposed to do, she goes on her way, which I thought was fascinating because she doesn't even talk to him in her father's presence. She just walks out. I don't understand that at all.
Light reflects power, while darkness represents vulnerability. When Smith displays the gunpowder to the natives, Faith writes, he highlights his potential as “a threat to the natives because [of his] access to this unknown, almost magical power.†The momentary shift in power in this scene is visualized in Smith’s walking into a well-lit area so that he is encompassed by light for the first time since entering the hut. The natives’ reaction to the gunpowder (and shift of power to Smith) turns from fear to hostility as the shamanistic figure targets Smith. Smith backpedals in fear before being pulled backwards into the darkness by other natives and thrust onto the ground. Faith, you say that Smith is seen as “dark, unknown, and threatening.†While a character shrouded in darkness can symbolize mysteriousness, in this case I think the natives are intentionally forcing Smith into darkness to keep him in a vulnerable position. This connects to the previous shot you mentioned of the “native walking on beams above [Smith, who] briefly blocks the sunlight.†Smith is physically forced into darkness once again, as well as the uncertainty and vulnerability that come with it. The blackout occurs at the peak of Smith’s vulnerability. The viewer could easily assume that Smith has been knocked unconscious (or worse). Opposed to Smith and his fire, which is essentially man-made light, Pocahontas is associated with the strongest, brightest, and most natural form of light, sunlight. Pocahontas has the most power in this scene because she saves Smith’s life when the rest of the tribe intends to kill him. When she throws herself on top of Smith, he is bathed in warm sunlight. Through the use of light (it is worthwhile noting that the entire scene was shot using only natural lighting) Malick gives Pocohontas more power than she historically had.
I think it is important to point out that John Smith’s darkness starts at the point when he loses his men and his native guides, as Burgoyne hints at in his essay: “With the two captive Indians as guides, Smith quickly loses himself and his men in a marshland, and is captured, alone, by Powhatan’s Indians.†He is in darkness even before his capture. Did the natives leave him on purpose so that he would be captured? As the Native Americans drag him to their tribal lands once they have taken him as their hostage, Smith is blindfolded, placed in darkness before he ever reaches their camp. I figure that the blindfold is another way of “keeping him in the dark,†so to speak, so that, if/when the Native Americas would release him, he would not be able to easily find his way back to the tribe, and the English could not harm them or take their goods until they could discover their lands. The natives even repeat this motion of blindfolding when they lead Smith back to the English settlement. The natives have placed a rope around his neck, yanking and pulling him along like a misbehaving dog, and he cannot see where they are taking him. This shows that the Native Americans definitively have the power in this situation, and Smith is their captive, powerless and disoriented. He is an animal in their eyes, maybe a hunted kill that they are bringing to their leader, like a prized buck to be mounted and stuffed by a hunter. “The natives triumphantly march him through the village,†according to Burgoyne, as if they led a great expedition to capture just what they have found: a special prize or enemy.
